Bloomberg helpfully explains how to short bitcoin

No need to explain how to short gold, since central banks take care of that just fine as long as news organizations never inquire about it.

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This Is How You Can Short Bitcoin

By Camila Russo
Bloomberg News
Monday, November 27, 2017

Bitcoin's assault on $10,000 has stirred bears who see fresh evidence of a bubble. There are ways to bet on a crash, but they're even riskier than trading the cryptocurrency on the way up.

The options to short bitcoin are mostly through unregulated exchanges, and very risky given bitcoin's volatility. Not to mention it hasn't exactly been a good year for bitcoin bears given the 10-fold surge in price. But for those daring enough to try, there are ways to bet against bitcoin's rise.

“All the options to short in common markets are becoming available in the bitcoin market,” said Charles Hayter, co-founder of market tracker CryptoCompare. “There's pretty good liquidity for shorting bitcoin. The main difference with shorting the Nasdaq for example, is it will be a lot more volatile, so there's a lot more risk. The rate to borrow will also be a bit higher.”

One of the most popular ways to short bitcoin is through CFDs, a derivative that mirrors the movements of the asset. It's a contract between the client and the broker, where the buyer and seller of the CFD agree to settle any rise or drop in prices in cash on the contract date. ...

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